Jul

30

Good on Carlos Watson this morning for pushing back against Rep. Mike Pence’s attempt to score talking points with the low math-low-info crowd. In a conversation about the cost of health care reform, Pence asserted that the bill currently in committee would raise taxes by $1 trillion dollars.

The CBO report estimates that “new revenues” – i.e. taxes, fees and penalties – will account for $583 billion of the offset cost to the $1.04 trillion cost of the health care bill. Rep. Spence claims that the health care bill will be paid for with a $1 trillion tax increase. His figure is off by $459 billion – because he’s “rounding up”.

Most people think of rounding up as adding a few cents to the next whole dollar – that is, $1.98 might as well be $2. Rounding up $583 billion to $1 trillion is sorta like rounding up $50.01 and saying you have “about $100”. Technically, since it’s 1 cent over halfway to $100, it’s correct. Intellectually – not so much.